• Nothing but blue skies for Ukip's Nigel Farage of late, with the Tories at sixes and sevens over Europe. But a little rain must fall. And this Christmas the changer of the climate appears to be Mario Borghezio, a member of the Italian Northern League but also a member of the Farage-led grouping, Europe of Freedom and Democracy. Last year Farage was obliged to give him a talking to after the Italian expressed some support for the concerns of the Norwegian mass murderer Anders Breivik, but nothing really came of it. Which may explain why Borghezio has apparently felt brave enough to chide America over Barack Obama's re-election. "They've chosen one of their own. Multiracial America has won, which I can't f-cking stand, to use a diplomatic term," he lamented to Italian radio. By contrast, "behind Romney you could see a beautiful, white, Christian America". Perhaps he was misquoted. But perhaps not, for according to reports in the French and Italian media last month he gave a speech, concluding: "Vive les Blancs de l'Europe, vive notre identité, notre ethnie, notre race!" – or "Long live the Whites of Europe, our identity, ethnicity and race!" Will Nigel finally get to grips with him?

• The death of Sir Patrick Moore has required due consideration for Farage, too. On the one hand, the astronomer was a proud Ukipian, happy to be used as a magnet for recruits. On the other, he proclaimed "The only good Kraut is a dead Kraut" and, "We are being swamped by parasites. Call me a racist but I would send them all back to where they came from." Some people did call him racist. Tricky.

• Meanwhile, amid the controversy surrounding the death of the nurse Jacinta Saldanha, a question: what happened at the Sun? Many have held back from pronouncing on what happened prior to the coming inquest. The Sun on Sunday seemed loth to join them. A head must roll, urged the leader column headlined Face Music Over Prank. "She was so tormented by the consequences of her own actions that she apparently killed herself … It's time for the pranksters of 2Day FM to grow up. And if the DJs don't have the decency to walk the plank, then their bosses surely must." But something happened, and by Monday the tone was markedly different. This time, headlined No Lynch Mob, the editorial said that the nurse's family and friends are entitled to be angry "at the crass Australian radio hoaxers who apparently drove her to suicide. And the station, with its history of offensive antics, cannot pretend it was blind to the stunt's folly … But the last thing we want is yet another witch-hunt. This sad story is a matter for a coroner's inquest, not mob justice." Indeed it is. But then, surely it was from the very beginning, wasn't it?

• And great excitement greets revelations that the novelist and champion liver of life Wilbur Smith is to take on a series of co-authors rather than writing all his books himself. The idea, according to the Sunday Times, came from his current wife, Mokhiniso Rakhimova, who is 39 years younger than him. But then all his wives impact in some way. He has published more than 30 books, and in every new imprint he ensures that there is an acknowledgement to the wife of the moment. There have been four beneficiaries so far. But he is only 79. Who knows what comes next?

• Finally, with top Tories regularly going their own way on matters such as gay marriage, Europe and Leveson, the prime minister must be wondering who he can rely upon. Who are the true believers? When the cock crows twice, and Boris makes his move, who will know him? Some seem more likely than others to gravitate towards power; and here we might say a word about the culture secretary, Maria Miller. She has risen at Westminster but, like so many figures of note, cut her teeth in the rough and tumble of student politics at the London School of Economics. But by what term was Miller – then Maria Lewis – described in the Beaver, the LSE newspaper, back in 1983? "Glove puppet". So she'll toe the line, one would think.

Twitter: @hugh_muir

• This article was amended on 11 December 2012. Due to a production error, the original described Patrick Moore as an astrologer, rather than an astronomer.